When an actor stars in a long-running and ultra-popular sitcom, it can be jarring to see them explore other avenues afterwards. Just ask “The Big Bang Theory” star Kunal Nayyar, who was clearly aware of this when he shed his Raj Koothrappali image in the boldest way possible by playing a ruthlessly clever killer on Netflix’s “Criminal” after “The Big Bang Theory” ended.
The thing is, it can be equally weird to see popular sitcom actors in roles they took before the hit show, as well. Nayyar has you covered on that front, as well, given that his résumé includes one of the most unlikely roles you’d expect from the man most famous for playing the goofy Raj. Before “The Big Bang Theory,” Naayar appeared as a terrorist villain of the week in the CBS procedural stalwart “NCIS,” of all things — and at the 2016 Screen Actors Guild Awards (via USA Today), he shared his overwhelmingly positive experiences working on the show:
“I played a terrorist. I couldn’t grow a mustache so they had to glue one on me. I got punched by Mark Harmon. It was the greatest experience of my life.”
Nayyar’s NCIS role was small but fun
Nayyar and his impressive (but admittedly fake-looking) mustache appear in “NCIS” season 4, episode 12, titled “Suspicion.” The episode, which originally aired on January 16, 2007, takes Leroy Jethro Gibbs’ (Harmon) NCIS Major Case Response Team to a small, prejudiced town to investigate the circumstances that left Marine Intelligence officer Rihama Shaheen (Necar Zadegan) dead. All signs point to an Iraqi-born man (Cas Anvar) who moved to town recently, but since this is “NCIS,” the truth is always ever so little more complicated than the knee-jerk reactions of bigoted locals might make it seem.
The future “The Big Bang Theory” star isn’t a particularly major part of the episode, to be fair. His character, Youssef Zidan, is essentially a henchman, and fans who know him as Raj will likely find him effectively unrecognizable. Still, Nayyar did appear on “NCIS” and got that coveted Leroy Jethro Gibbs punch, so who can judge him for considering the experience a significant moment in his professional life?
